Donna Christensen

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 421) recognizing and commending the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on its 75th year anniversary.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, The Great Smoky Mountains National Park was created by Congress on June 15, 1934. The park now encompasses more than 520,000 acres of land in Tennessee and North Carolina, making it the largest protected area in the eastern United States. It is also our Nation's most visited national park. This great park is world-renowned for the diversity of its plant and animal life, the beauty of its ancient mountains, and the quality of its remnants of Southern Appalachian mountain culture. House Resolution 421, introduced by the gentleman from Tennessee, Representative David Roe, would express the commendation of the House of Representatives to Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the National Park Service for 75 years of successful management and preservation of the park land. Mr. Speaker, we support House Resolution 421, and urge its adoption by the House today. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to add extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Congresswoman Fudge. I just want to add my word of thanks and commendation for the way that you bring us together every week on Monday evenings to discuss issues of importance, not just to the African American community or communities of color, but issues of importance to our entire country. I want to thank my colleagues for their kind words. I did have the opportunity to visit with Congressman Payne in his district. It was a wonderful event, very well attended, and the people who came, I know, really benefited from what he and his staff and others in the community came together to provide. And Congressman Scott, who's been working on SCHIP, but he also has worked tirelessly on another issue that's not always seen as a public health issue, but it is a public health issue, and that's the issue of juvenile violence among our young people, and working to prevent that. We look forward to continuing to work with him on the PROMISE Act and other legislation that he has introduced. Of course, Congressman Davis is my co-Chair on the Health Brain Trust, so I share all of the accolades with him, as he has long been working in the area of health care. This weekend I had the honor of giving the commencement address at LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. I want to recognize and congratulate the 546 graduates. As we look to health care reform, we're wondering where the health care personnel are going to come from. The LSU Health Sciences Center made a great contribution in doctors, nurses, dentists, health researchers, and allied health. We commend them, and we commend them not just on graduating and completing their coursework, but I want to commend them especially because, for those who started about 4 years ago, as the medical students would have, and others, they started just before Katrina. Their school was devastated by Katrina. Some of them had to go to classes in other parts of our country to keep their coursework going. But the LSU administration, faculty, and staff really pulled together when they had very limited help and support to bring their students back together and to see to it that they did complete their coursework and do great research and be able to move on to very promising careers in all of the fields of health. So I want to congratulate them and commend them on that. It's good to see that they are now in the process of rebuilding some of the facilities there and continuing to grow and will be educating another cadre of young people and graduating another cadre next year. I want to thank our chairlady for our steadfast commitment to the issue of the elimination of health disparities as well, as we heard her speak to it a few minutes ago. I want to just highlight some of the key themes from a report that's often overlooked. It's the National Health Care Disparities Report that's done by the Department of Health and Human Services. They do it every year. It's done by the Agency for Health Research and Quality. This is the report for 2008. It's amazing because it really is very similar to the report that Surgeon General Heckler did 25 years ago when she found that persistent disparities remain and, as she said, was an affront to the ideals of this country and the quality of medicine that we have here. But three key themes emerge in the 2008 report: one, that disparities persist in health care quality and access; two, that the magnitude and pattern of disparities are different within subpopulations; three, that some disparities exist across multiple priority populations. As they look at some of these highlights, some of the trends that we still see today in communities of color, for blacks and Asians, 60 percent of the core measures used to track access remained unchanged or got worse in that year. That's 60 percent for African Americans and for Asians. For Hispanics, 80 percent of core access measures remained unchanged or got worse in 2008; and for poor populations, 57 percent of core access measures remained unchanged or got worse in that year. So as we move towards health care reform, the issue of access and insurance is very important. As we begin that work when we get back from our Memorial Day break, it will be critical that we work arduously to remove the 46 million Americans off of the rolls of the uninsured and an additional 20 million Americans out of the category of being underinsured. Studies confirm that more than 5 in 10 or 55 percent of Hispanics, and 4 in 10 African Americans were uninsured for all or part of 2007 and 2008, compared to just 2 in 10 or 25 percent in whites. Additionally, in total, more than three in every four people of color, 76 percent, were uninsured for 6 months or more in 2007-2008. I agree with Congressman Davis that we will enact universal coverage before the end of this year and bring insurance to every person living in this country. But while eliminating uninsurance is critical, it's also important that we remember that health and wellness is about more than just having an insurance card. Only about 20 percent of health disparities can be attributed to uninsurance. We have to ensure as well that health equity is an integral component of efforts not only to reform but to transform our Nation's health care system so that all Americans, regardless of race or ethnicity, regardless of whether you live in an urban or rural area, regardless of your gender or sexual orientation that you receive equitable and appropriate care every single time that it is needed. The time to eliminate the current inequities in health and in health care is long overdue, and the evidence detailing the impact that they have had and continue to have on the health and well-being of Americans is staggering. In fact, across every chronic condition and every acute disease, and across every measure of health care quality, racial and ethnic minorities, as you have heard this evening, are disproportionately more likely than whites to be on the downside and to be detrimentally affected. In addition to eliminating uninsurance and achieving health equity with comprehensive health reform, we also have to ensure that we identify the health policy that exists in every policy, and this is something that I want to just focus on for a few minutes. We were reminded of this by a Dr. Ogilvie who spoke at our spring Braintrust a few weeks ago. From climate and urban planning policies to environmental and education policies, from housing and transportation policies, from employment and criminal justice policies, every week a new study is released that confirms that there is a health policy in every policy. So it's not a surprise then that by addressing the health repercussions of the policies that are not overtly health-related, we are more likely to champion policies that not only complement our health care reform efforts but that further improve the health and wellness of every person living in this country. And that's where we're also going to see some of those savings come about when we address health in a very holistic way, not just disease entities but the whole community creating cultures of wellness. For example, a March 2009 report from Public Health Law and Policy explains, the human health aspects of climate change policy by focusing on food systems and land use planning, that is, health policy in every policy. In their analyses and recommendations, they note that because both climate change policy and public health policy ultimately seek to improve the lives of people, it is critical that they work towards complementary goals and in a complementary manner to have the greatest potential to create healthy and sustainable communities and neighborhoods. You can take that into education if we don't have a strong educational system where every child has access to quality education. We know that poor education is also linked to poor health. We can never build the diverse workforce that we need if we don't have good K-12 education. If you live in substandard housing, it's difficult to be healthy. If you don't have access to healthy foods, you cannot adopt those lifestyles that are necessary to improving and supporting good health. And so insurance for everyone. Universal coverage is important. I will work hard with my colleagues to ensure that we get that done, as the President has asked, before we go out for the August recess. But insurance is not enough. We have to reform the system. We have to improve the standard of living in our communities. And then with the insurance, with the improvements in the system, with the healthy communities, then we can ensure that every American will have access to quality health care, and our country will be a stronger and better country because of it.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, as the American Clean Energy and Security Act goes to markup next week, citizens around our country will be looking forward to legislation that not only addresses the crucial issues of energy independence and climate change but also does not greatly increase our costs. Americans understand that we are at a crucial point with the high and unpredictable costs of energy, global warming, and its direct impact on our health, wellbeing, and national security must be addressed. The people of the insular areas understand this in a more acute way as we have the highest energy costs in the Nation, geographic locations that are susceptible to the ill effects of climate change, and economies that can be easily affected if the goals of energy independence and environmental sustainability are not reached. As we work to move our country into a new clean energy economy, we look forward to our full inclusion in legislation that will create jobs in our communities, encourage the production of cleaner renewable energy resources, decrease the pollution that has damaged our air and water quality and impacted our health, and produce entrepreneurial opportunities for both large and small businesses. We look forward to a new direction and a new clean energy and green economy.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, I object to the vote on the grounds that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 204) congratulating the American Dental Association for its 150th year of working to improve the public's oral health and promoting dentistry, supporting initiatives to improve access to oral health care services for all Americans, and emphasizing the benefits of prevention of disease through support of community prevention initiatives and promotion of good oral hygiene.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to extend and revise their remarks.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of House Resolution 204, a resolution that congratulates the American Dental Association on its 150th anniversary. The American Dental Association is the largest and oldest professional association for dental providers. Its more than 157,000 members play a vital role in improving access to oral health services. Former Surgeon General David Satcher has noted that oral health is integral to general health. The American Dental Association has been a lead advocate in ensuring that these important health services are not forgotten. I would like to thank and applaud my colleague, Representative Simpson, for his leadership on this issue. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this resolution that commends the American Dental Association for its important work to promote good oral hygiene and community prevention strategies. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, I would like to yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky).

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H. Res. 192, a resolution that honors the important contributions of nurses in the United States health care system. There are nearly 3 million registered nurses nationwide. Nurses represent the single largest group of health care professionals. They are involved in every aspect of care. They are researchers. They help inform and educate the public, and they also help educate doctors, especially those freshly out of medical schools or residencies. They monitor the health and safety of their patients. They work to provide culturally competent care. Earlier this spring at an Energy and Commerce hearing, witnesses highlighted the important role that nurses play in improving access to primary care, particularly among the underserved populations. I would like to thank Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, a nurse, for her leadership on this issue. I would also like to thank Representative Capps, who is also a nurse, for her continued support of nursing issues and for her work on this bill, and I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this resolution that observes the important role that nurses play in the lives of their patients. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 192) recognizing National Nurses Week on May 6 through May 12, 2009.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, it is my pleasure to yield to the sponsor of the resolution, the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson).

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, I want to recognize the American Nurses Association and the National Black Nurses Association, as well as the other nursing associations, for the leadership that they provide on behalf of nurses, and to take this opportunity to congratulate all the new nurses who will be receiving their pins and their caps later this month and joining this noble profession.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, it is with great pride and much gratitude that I rise to salute Dr. LaVeme Erin Ragster as she steps down from the Presidency of the University of the Virgin Islands. Dr. Ragster was born and raised on St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, where she graduated, as valedictorian, from Charlotte Amalie High School in 1969. Her educational career includes completion of a bachelor of science degree in biology and chemistry, in 1973, from the University of Miami, a master of science degree in biology with an algal physiology concentration, in 1975, from San Diego State University, and a doctorate in biology with a plant biochemistry concentration, in 1980, from the University of California, San Diego. Early in her career, Dr. Ragster served as a member of the teaching faculty at the College, which became the University of the Virgin Islands, where she was promoted from assistant professor to professor of marine biology. During that period she worked with a number of regional organizations, including the Caribbean Studies Association (past president), Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (former board member, past chair of the board), Caribbean Conservation Association (past vice president), Island Resources Foundation (board member), The Nature Conservancy (former board member) and the Caribbean Council for Service and Technology (USVI representative). In addition to her professional activities, Dr. Ragster has always been actively involved in her community. She has served as president of the League of Women Voters of the Virgin Islands, and in a number of leadership positions in the territory in non-governmental organizations, particularly in the areas of education and the environment. The second decade (and beyond) of Dr. Ragster's career has been devoted to professional pursuits leading to positions of progressively greater administrative responsibilities. She held positions such as: Chair of the Division of Science and Mathematics; Faculty Trustee to the UVI Board of Trustees; Acting Vice President for Research and Land Grant Affairs; Vice President for Research and Public Service; and Senior Vice President and Provost at UVI. In addition, during this period Dr. Ragster published a number of papers on the role of natural resources in resource management and development, produced programs for the training of faculty and resource managers, and developed curriculum materials to teach natural resource management at the university level in the Caribbean. Dr. Ragster helped to link UVI with other higher education institutions in the region when she served as sub-secretary general for the Association of Caribbean Universities and Research Institutes (UNICA) and as the coordinator of the Caribbean Universities for Natural Resource Management. More broadly, Dr. Ragster has served as a member of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations Environment Program, as a member of the national Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee and as a member of the National Commission on Environmental Justice. For the last seven years of her career, Dr. Ragster has served as President of the University of the Virgin Islands. She became the first female and fourth president of the University of the Virgin Islands on August 1, 2002. Dr. Ragster currently serves as a member of the UVI Research and Technology Park Board, past Chair and current member of the University Consortium for Small Island States Governing Board, Vice President for the Association of Caribbean Universities and Research Institutes (UNICA), member of the Liga Atletica Interuniversitaria de Puerto Rico y las Islas Virgenes Governing Board, a member of the American Council on Education's Organization of Women in Higher Education, a facilitator for the American Council on Education's Institute New CAOs, member of the Alexander Hamilton Distinguished Public Service Award Selection Committee, and the Caribbean National Resources Institute Partner, since 2009. During her tenure as President, Dr. Ragster's leadership and commitment to excellence has been recognized by those both at home and abroad. Among community groups that have honored President Ragster are the Business and Professional Women's Organization, which named her person of the year for 2003. In March 2009, The Rotary Club of St. Thomas II bestowed the Paul Harris Award upon Dr. Ragster, as did The Rotary Club of St. Thomas East. Dr. Ragster has also been an honorary member of The Rotary Club of St. Thomas II for the past three years. In early 2006, around the mid-point if her Presidency, Dr. Ragster received a Drum Major for Justice Women Leadership in Higher Education Award from the SCLC/W.O.M.E.N., Inc in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Ragster is married to Lloyd Gardner, an environmental planner, and they have two sons, Adrian and Alex. Madam Speaker, throughout her stellar career, Dr. Ragster has displayed academic and professional integrity which has translated into the advancement of her students, her peers and indeed the entire Virgin Islands community. As she steps down from the presidency of the University, we are sure that this is but a step in the direction of even more commitment to community and advancement in both the personal and professional sphere. On behalf of the people of the United States Virgin Islands, I would like to wish one of their favored daughters, Godspeed, as she moves forward on her life's journey.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, it is my honor to be here to host this hour on behalf of the Congressional Black Caucus. And we want to talk about health care this evening. Before the votes, I attended a District of Columbia Black AIDS Leadership Mobilization Summit; it was a town meeting held at the Kaiser Family Foundation. I want to commend the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, the Black AIDS Institute, the Kaiser Foundation, NAACP, National Urban League, the YWCA, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the National Council of Negro Women, Us Helping Us, The Women's Collective, Balm in Gilead, the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, Phi Beta Sigma, the National Medical Association, and all of the associations which came together to address the epidemic in the District of Columbia and around the country. On March 16 of this year, the D.C. AIDS Office released its latest HIV surveillance report. And what it showed was that the HIV rate in the Nation's capital is the highest in the country, and that an estimated 3 percent of the population is affected with AIDS. One percent would make it an epidemic, so it is of epidemic proportions here in the District. The D.C. rate of infection is higher than 28 African countries. The infection rate puts Washington, D.C. on a par with Uganda. So this is an issue that really must be addressed. This is our Nation's capital. The Congress has responsibility for the capital, Madam Speaker. I made a commitment while I was there that the Congressional Black Caucus would work to ensure that this Congress takes that responsibility seriously and addresses this serious epidemic that exists in the Nation's capital. I wanted to mention a couple of things this evening, Madam Speaker. Yesterday, Nicholas Kristof wrote a column in the New York Times that ought to give us all pause. In it he addresses an issue that many of us on the Committee on Homeland Security have raised many times--and I am sure Chairman Bennie Thompson continues to work to address--and that is the deficient public health system in this country, especially in rural communities, in poor communities, and communities of color. I raised the issue at the H1N1 hearing in the Health Subcommittee on Energy and Commerce last week. I just want to share a few quotes from the article. Nicholas Kristof says, ``The flu crisis should be a wake-up call, a reminder that one of our vulnerabilities to the possible pandemic is our deeply flawed medical system.'' And he quotes from Deborah Burger, the co-president of the California Nurses Association, the National Nurses Organizing Committee, who says, ``From SARS to avian flu to the current escalating outbreak of swine influenza, it has become increasingly clear that we are risking a major catastrophe unless we act to restore the safety net.'' Mr. Kristof continues, ``Think of the 47 million Americans who lack insurance. They are less likely to receive flu vaccines''--which might or might not help,'' he says--``less likely to receive prompt care when they get sick, and less able financially to stay home from work. And, thus, they are more likely to both die and spread the virus inadvertently.'' He also goes on to say--which is something that we have brought to the attention of the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Homeland Security--``hospitals lack spare beds, ventilators, and staff to cope with an epidemic. One study found that a flu epidemic would mean that 10 million Americans would need to be hospitalized compared with a total of nearly 1 million beds in America, about two-thirds of them occupied. ``Last year, Chairman Waxman ordered a review of surge capacity,'' reports Mr. Kristof, ``in hospitals available for a terror attack. What was the surge capacity? He found that more than half of the emergency rooms studied were already operating above capacity.'' The last quote that I want to bring to your attention from this op-ed is a quote that he uses from Dr. Redlener, the director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. And Dr. Redlener says, and I agree, ``If a severe pandemic materializes, all of society would pay a heavy price for decades of failing to create a rational system of health care that works for us all.'' A few years ago, we had a Dr. Stephen Wolf from Virginia Commonwealth University come and talk to us about a report that he did on health care and the discrepancies, the disparities, the gaps in health care that the poor rural Americans, Americans of color face. I would like to use this quote and share it with you. He says, ``In the end, however, it all comes down to priorities. Perhaps we have reached a point when progress in providing good care when needed, with compassion and skill and without errors, would impress the public as a more meaningful medical advance than the rollout of the latest device or pill.'' He says, ``failing to establish systems to ensure that everyone receives recommended care is causing greater disease and deaths at levels that can rarely be offset by medical advances.'' So as we look at the spread of H1N1, this is a call to action to really fix the public health system in this country and make sure that every community has the kind of infrastructure it needs to address not only epidemics, but the everyday illnesses that the people in those communities suffer from. But we do have an opportunity to address this health care system and to address health disparities. The Congressional Black Caucus--which has always had the elimination of health disparities as one of its main priorities--really welcomes the new political and policy dynamics that are currently shaping health care in this country. Because after all of the years and money spent on disease entities, we have only made slight progress. And even where improvements have been made, the gaps between people of color and the white majority have either remained the same or the gaps have widened. According to testimony given at the Health Subcommittee on Energy and Commerce by Dr. Brian Smedley of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, he says, ``Access to high-quality health care is particularly important for communities of color because deep-held status gaps persist among U.S. racial and ethnic groups.'' He goes on to say, ``While the Nation has made progress in lengthening and improving the quality of life, racial and ethnic health disparities begin early in the life span and exact a significant human and economic toll.'' He gives us some examples: ``The prevalence of diabetes among American Indians and Alaskan natives is more than twice that for all adults in the United States. Among African Americans, the age-adjusted death rate for cancer is approximately 25 percent higher than for white Americans.'' Although infant mortality, he said, ``decreased among all races during the 1980 to 2000 timed period, the black and white gap in infant mortality widened. ``While the life expectancy gap between African Americans and whites has narrowed slightly, African Americans can still expect to live 6 to 10 fewer years than whites and face higher rates of illness and mortality.'' He goes on to say, ``In terms of lives, this gap is staggering. A recent analysis of 1991 to 2000 mortality data concluded that had mortality rates of African Americans been equivalent to that of whites in that time period, over 880,000 deaths would have been averted.'' So we welcome and intend to be a part of shaping health care reform. And, of course, it does start with universal coverage because here are some other statistics: Racial and ethnic minorities, although we account for about one-third of the U.S. population, account for more than half of the uninsured. Racial and ethnic minorities are more likely than whites to report not seeing a specialist when it was needed, foregoing needed health care because of the costs, and not being insured, they don't have a usual source of care. More than five of 10, 55 percent, Hispanics, four in 10 African Americans were uninsured for all or part of 2007 and 2008, compared with just two in 10, or 25 percent, in whites. In total, more than three in every four people of color, 76 percent, were uninsured for 6 months or more in 2007 and 2008. That data, I believe, comes from Families USA. So the Congressional Black Caucus is looking at how we would like to see universal coverage provided. Of course, we feel that everyone must have coverage, and we insist that there be a public option. We have joined the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Asian Pacific Caucus in calling for a public option, and we will support a bill if it has a public option. But also, and this is a concern that I have, we also need to ensure that we don't end up with the same kind of two-tiered system that we have today, one for the poor and one for everyone else, even when we have a public system. So we either need to figure out a way that that public system serves the poor and everyone else where the government may pay in for those who are at a certain level of poverty and the others pay in through subsidies that are done on a sliding scale or pay for it fully, or we need to fix the Medicaid program because the care that patients who have Medicaid who actually have access to health care is not equal and the outcomes are poorer than those who are insured, and in some cases it's the same or poorer than even the uninsured. So ensuring that everyone is covered is critically important. It's critically important for African Americans and other people of color, who bear a disproportionate burden of disease in this country, but it's important to every American because to the extent that so many people in this country remain uninsured, it adversely affects health care for everyone. But insurance is just the beginning of what needs to be done to close the health disparities gap. For example, insured African American patients are less likely than insured whites to receive many potentially lifesaving or life-extending procedures such as high-tech care like cardiac catheterization, bypass graft surgery, or even kidney transplantation. And the IOM report of 2002 showed us that even when everything else is equal, educational level, economic level, and insurance, African Americans and other people of color get less care. Black cancer patients fail to get the same combinations of surgical and chemotherapy treatments that white patients with the same disease presentation received. African American heart patients are less likely than white patients to receive diagnostic procedures, revascularization procedures, and thrombolytic therapy, even when they have similar incomes, insurance, and other patient characteristics. Even routine care suffers. Black and Latino patients are less likely than whites to receive aspirin upon discharge following a heart attack; to receive the appropriate care for pneumonia; and to have pain, such as the kind resulting from broken bones, appropriately treated. Minorities are more likely to receive undesirable treatment than whites, such as limb amputation for diabetes. To so begin to address these, the TriCaucus, which includes the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and the Congressional Asian and Pacific Island Caucus, will be reintroducing the Health Equity and Accountability Act, which we have introduced in the last three Congresses and for which we had hearings held in both the subcommittees of Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce last year. The bill takes a comprehensive approach and will have budget impact, but we are talking about reforming a broken health care system, one which many call a ``sick care system.'' And I really think it needs more than reforming; it needs a transformation. Among the provisions, the bill includes those that would bolster efforts to ensure culturally and linguistically appropriate health care and remove language and cultural barriers to health care. It would improve workforce diversity, strengthen and coordinate data collection, ensure accountability and improve evaluation, and improve health care services especially for those diseases that are causing the disparities. But today, after the limited progress we've made in eliminating these disparities, we know that in addition to doing all of those things, collecting data, increasing the diversity of our workforce, increasing accountability, providing for comprehensive programs of care to address some of those diseases that cause the gaps and cause people to die prematurely from preventable causes, we know that in addition to addressing the gaps in the many disease entities that we also have to turn our country's focus to disparities in its broader context to the pervasive, persistent social determinants or primordial determinants of the poor health of our communities. If we don't address these, the root causes, the totality of the environments in which we live and suffer from this ill health, we will never achieve wellness. So if we are to be healthy and achieve our optimal health, it's here also that change must occur. That is to ensure that the environments in which we live support the elimination of health disparities and support good health and our overall well-being. I think the country is fortunate, and I know the country also understands how fortunate it is, and I'm blessed to work with the Congressional Black Caucus, where 42 diverse individuals with expertise and focus in many different areas such as health, education, economic development, job creation, workers' rights, environmental justice, housing, and all of the factors that are the underpinnings of our health, as a group, we work as a cohesive unit to improve the well- being of our communities and of all Americans. So I look at our entire Congressional Black Caucus agenda as a health agenda because we work on the broad agenda that is critical to closing the health gap and ensuring that all Americans have access to wellness. And it's critical that we do this because the real things, the things that underlie our poor health, the things that are really killing us are factors like an overabundance of liquor stores in black and Latino and poor communities; the flooding of everything we see, read, and hear with tobacco advertising; intractable poverty and the way it fosters depression, drug abuse, and crime, creating neighborhoods where it's impossible to go outdoors and exercise, as we know we must; the refusal of businesses, including grocery stores and really medical entities as well, to come into poor and communities of color, where pharmacies that are there stock and dispense less pain medicine, regardless of how much pain the individual is having just because we're in a poor neighborhood that is made up mostly of racial and ethnic minorities; the profiling by the criminal justice system that makes some people wrong just because of the color of their skin or puts the mentally ill into the criminal justice system rather than into treatment; the racism and discrimination that denies racial and ethnic minorities the same quality of health care that I spoke about earlier that others take for granted and that pays less in our neighborhoods and so provides a strong and effective disincentive for hospitals and the other providers we need to come into our communities and stay there; the fact that too many of those providers that we do have don't understand our culture or our language; and all of the many assaults on our very humanity that weakens the well-known strength of spirit and the will to do the things that we know will improve our health and our quality of life. All of this is still not fully on the radar screen of most who set and implement policy, and this is something else that we must change. Yet communities around the country, with or without our help, are taking on some of these issues and creating miracles and making dramatic changes in people's lives. We intend to help these communities and other communities become agents of change and to develop not just a better system of health delivery but an entire culture and environment of wellness. Today I introduced the Health Empowerment Zone bill, through which we plan to give these communities the resources and the technical assistance that they need to improve their health and well-being. Through this bill communities can apply. The Department of Health and Human Services would provide the technical assistance and some resources to help that community form a community coalition to identify their health care challenges, to do a community assessment and to develop a strategic plan. Then the community would apply for designation as a health empowerment zone, and if they're so designated, they would have the opportunity to be a priority for programs that already exist in our government. So this bill will not be a costly bill. We're talking about a little bit of startup money to these communities and, more than that, technical assistance to help them to do their community assessment and do their plan, and the help that they will get to implement that plan and turn around their community and make it a place where people can be well would come from programs that already exist. These communities would just have priority, and this is an attempt for us to address the social determinants of health, which we all know are critical if we are going to eliminate disparities and create healthy communities and a more healthy country. So we intend to help these and other communities, as I said, and we introduced that bill today. Last week we held our Spring Health Brain Trust with the National Minority Quality Forum, and the messages that came from that meeting were very clear: Our health care system needs not just reform; it needs transformation. It will require an investment that goes beyond providing universal coverage because we have seen through many reports, the IOM and many more research papers, that minorities, people who speak a different language, people of color, even when they are insured, don't get the kind of care that the rest of the population gets. The message came loud and clear that we need to reform Medicaid and ensure that that access really provides quality health care. And, lastly, I would say that the message that we'd like to send out of that is that we know that it will cost a fair amount of money, but it's our health that we are talking about. We know that many people think or many of the pundits say that perhaps our President is trying to do too much, but we say we need all of it. And we stand with our President as he calls on us to reform our health care system or, rather, transform our health care system and ensure that quality health care is accessible, available to each and every American. I just want to close with another quote from the Closing the Gap Report that was written in 2005 that addresses the issue of health inequities, and the quote says: ``Inequities within the health care system and within larger social, environmental, and economic structures persist not because of a dearth of solutions but because of a failure of political will.'' And I call on my colleagues to let us develop that political will. Let us eliminate disparities that are causing the premature death of people of color, poor, and rural Americans in this country, and let's transform our health care system so that everyone has access to quality, comprehensive health care.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker and colleagues, once again the people of my district, the U.S. Virgin Islands, have lost a beloved political leader who for the past half century has selflessly given of his time and talents to the betterment of our community. Claude A. Molloy, a native of St. Croix--``Tappy,'' as he was affectionately known to one and all--served this country in the U.S. Air Force during the 1950s and later went on to obtain a Bachelor of Business Administration in accounting from the University of Puerto Rico in 1962, and then subsequently an MBA, with a specialization in economics, finance, and industrial relations from the Columbia University School of Business in 1976. He served our territorial government with dedication and distinction in many capacities over the years in the Departments of Finance, Property and Procurement, Labor, and the Board of the VI Water and Power Authority in crucial and vital positions. But according to those who knew him best, his most significant contributions were in his service to the Virgin Islands Legislature and the Government Employee Retirement System. He was elected to the Virgin Islands Legislature for three terms and served as Senate President in the 10th Legislature of the U.S. Virgin Islands. As a legislator, he made his mark as chairman of the Committee of Agriculture and Procurement, Tourism and Advertising, Labor and Veterans Affairs, the Cost of Living Commission, and Banking and Interest Rates. He also served on the Second Constitutional Convention's Committee on Taxation, Finance and Federal Relations, as well as the Cultural Heritage Commission. As administrator for the Virgin Islands Employees Retirement System, he fought to preserve the integrity of the system, even so far as going to court to ensure that the system's assets were protected and that government contributions were submitted on time. That was quintessential Tappy--fiercely protecting the people of the Virgin Islands in any instance where he felt they or their rights were being threatened. Mr. Speaker and colleagues, many in my community have fond memories of a man who cared for his family, his people, and his islands. His contributions to the formative years of the young democracy that is the U.S. Virgin Islands will be a prominent part of our history. I extend my condolences to his wife, Juel, his sisters, his children and his grandchildren. I know that his wit and wisdom will remain an indelible part of their and our memories in the days to come, and we thank them all for sharing this lion of a man with us so generously.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to yield such time as she may consume to the sponsor of the House companion measure to S. 39, the gentlewoman from Arizona (Mrs. Kirkpatrick).

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, I would like to once again yield such time as he might consume to the sponsor of the bill, Congressman Inslee.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. H.R. 411, the Great Cats and Rare Canids Act, was introduced in the 111th Congress by our colleague from Washington, Congressman Jay Inslee. The bill before the House today is identical to noncontroversial legislation that passed the House during the 110th Congress. The overall purpose of the bill is to assist in the conservation of 15 imperiled cat and canid species such as the lion, cheetah, and jaguar and the African wild dog and Darwin's fox. The bill would establish a new Great Cat and Rare Canid Conservation Fund to finance Federal matching grants that support critical conservation projects to conserve these highly endangered wildlife species and their shrinking and fragmented habitats. Moreover, this legislation is patterned after other noteworthy wildlife conservation funds authorized by the Congress that help conserve and recover critically endangered populations of rhinoceros, tigers, African and Asian elephants, great apes, and marine turtles. Mr. Speaker, great cats and rare canids are no less deserving than these other keystone wildlife species, and I ask Members on both sides to support the passage of this noncontroversial bill. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.